[Daren]

I sawed a little walnut yard tree for a feller awhile back. I pulled some nice 12" wide boards from it that had a good curl figure. I was happy for him (and jealous at the same time).
After I milled the log I called him and told him it was done and I had good news it was special. I told him was curly. His response was "What's curly mean? and is that good?" I said yes. So he picks it up and hauls it home.
He called me a couple days ago and said he now wanted to kiln dried. He dropped it off when I was not home today and told my wife to mark the "diamond wood". My wife knowing wood terms as she does, had not heard of diamond wood. She said have you got some curly wood. He replied "No I think he said diamond or something like that" I want to sort that out and sell it on ebay:glare:.
OK, so the guy has no clue what he has. I wish I had it...but he thinks it's made of diamonds (at least gold) since I told him it was special. And he is going to "get rich" on ebay with about 100bft of yard tree :laughing:.
I guess I am just more jealous than anything. It is pretty wood, and if I had not told him different he would not know it from anything I chose to load on the trailer the day I sawed it.
I sanded a couple spots and wiped them with water before I threw them in the kiln with some of my own figured walnut. The picture is not great, but you get the idea.

 

[Big Dave]

Next time you'll tell them it's junk with all the crooked grain and all and you'd keep it for sawing it up for them.

You have to protect people from themselves.

 

[Daren]

I guess I should have explained how curly grain likes to tear out with a planer and offered him some straight grain in swap. It would make for easier finish work for him...just being a nice guy :yes:
I was not going to mess around too much with another mans wood just to get a picture to post here (I was paid to saw/dry), but it is good stock with tight uniform curl. Right up my alley. I saw walnut and figured lumber as my specialties, to get the 2 in one is rare. I wish he appreciated it though, if he did I would be tickled pink for him and glad I got to mill it.
I do not mean this in a derogatory manner towards a paying customer and a decent dude but the old saying," casting pearls before swine" is appropriate.

 

[TexasTimbers]

I love that shimmer, that is pretty stuff.

 

[JP Sinclair]

That is cool stuff Daren. It's amazing what comes out of the front of people's yards. Or thier firewood piles. I know we've talked about this subject many times but here I go again. I was standing in a guy's yard and looked at his firewood pile and saw he was using a piece of cherry for a splitting block. He said he was using it because of the big growth on the side (BURL!!!). I got it home and had to make a fence to get it clamped but I got some cool pieces, some at 3/4" and some at 1/2". I just sawed a white birch burl last weekend that had a neat spiderweb pattern. The bottom pic is a platter we made, not real complex but I'm starting with the basics in woodworking. The great thing is that character wood can make even the most basic stuff look great (Thank God).

 

[Daren]

JP, as you well know I dig through plenty of firewood piles :laughing:. I have not been lucky enough to come across a burl yet, good find. I figure as much scrounging as I do it is just a matter of time though. A guy just never knows what little jewel he will come across. I made a new contact today that is a sharp young man who works at a production cabinet shop as an assembler and does tree work on the side. He spent some time with me today and got a quick course in "funky wood 101" and seemed to learn very fast as we dug through my stuff what was what and how to determine it. He is now on the lookout for me, another set of eyes. He lives close and is interested in a little extra cash a big burl or curly log would put in his pocket, plus he appreciates how cool the wood is.
The reason he was by at first was to drop off this cedar tree for "gas money". 8 logs, 4 trunk logs 8-10 feet and 18"-24" and 4 more after the tree forked that where still not shabby (10"+). Not too bad for Illinois eastern red cedar, better that the scrub I see most if the time.

 

[JCCLARK]

I guess I am just more jealous than anything. It is pretty wood, and if I had not told him different he would not know it from anything I chose to load on the trailer the day I sawed it.
.

You did the right thing:thumbsup:
Nice to know your honesty is worth more than a
stack of wood.:yes:

 

[Daren]

Nice to know your honesty is worth more than a
stack of wood.:yes:

Anything short of giving a guy back exactly what he brought is just stealing (even if they don't know what they have). I hate a thief. But at $.35 bft to saw some people have felt like they just left a hold up :laughing:. They keep coming back though, must be the straight boards.

 

[JP Sinclair]

Nice cedar buddy, I was hoping to get a couple thousand feet this winter from a guy on the other side of the state. Unfortunately the swamp he was going to log it from never froze over enough to get in there. I was going to try to make a picnic table like the one that was posted.

I just found out about a place in central vermont called Global timber. They are a veneer exporter. They buy a lot of their timber tree length and cut the veneer out. The remaining pieces, many around 4' are put into a big pile. They sell dump truck loads at $100 per load. I'm thinking there will be some pretty sweet short stuff that would be great milling material. After all, how many 8 foot coffee tables are there?. Some veneer sized maple/cherry at 4' will make some great material. I'll take some pics when I go and check it out.

 

[TexasTimbers]

Daren nice find.

JP sounds like a potential honey hole you have discovered I bet you get some diamonds in the rough rom that place. I also bet you will get the occassional full length cull if you ask.

 

[JP Sinclair]

I'm excited, I think it could work out pretty good. From what my buddy was telling me, the firewood processing guys didn't want the pieces because they were too short in thier machines. The chipper operators didn't want them because they would turn in the hopper and screw up the feed tube. The homeowners didn't want them because they were too heavy. I'm just imagining what they could be like. To veneer guys, a big burl is a defect and they would cut it out!. :shifty:

 

[Daren]

To veneer guys, a big burl is a defect and they would cut it out!. :shifty:

Yep.:yes: Quite awhile back I had a guy contact me who was doing the same thing. He had a rotary veneer mill close to him and he was getting the small rounds left from the cutting process. He was picking up the turned down centers and using them for small bowl blanks. Stuff like cherry and maple. He wanted to know if I wanted some, but he was all the way in N.Y. and it was not feasible to ship for me. I had plenty he was just offering to be nice I think. He would go get pickup truck loads of "mini logs", they had the pith in them but for what he was using them for it didn't matter really. I never thought to tell him to go around back and see what they rejected, that is where the good stuff probably was.

 

[JP Sinclair]

Back when the company was just putting the yard in, my buddy was on the construction crew doing some environmental site work. He said the pile of cut-offs was huge and there was some really nice stuff. He bought a dump truck load for firewood and remembers thinking what a shame it was that he was splitting it up. Another buddy (good to have a lot of buddies!) has an 18 wheeler dump truck that can fit a lot of wood. If it looks like good stuff, he said I could rent it from him cheap and get a big ol' load.

I'll bring my camera when I go, if it's good stuff, I'll burn some pics.